peacekeeper

Rebels terrorize town a few miles from UN base

(Newser) -
Congolese and Rwandan rebels continue to sow terror across eastern Congo, holding an entire town hostage earlier this month and gang-raping nearly 200 women and baby boys, the AP reports. The violence occurred only a few miles from a base of UN peacekeepers, but the force of 25 was unable...
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Mission leader among missing workers feared dead

(Newser) -
About 150 United Nations staffers, including the Haiti mission leader, are feared dead below the rubble of Port-au-Prince in what appears to be the UN's greatest-ever loss of life in a single incident. The deaths of 16 UN workers in Tuesday's massive earthquake have already been confirmed, and "It's...
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Peacekeeping troops establish contact, plead for their release

(Newser) -
Two staffers supporting peacekeeping operations in Darfur were kidnapped from their homes this morning, the AP reports. The joint UN-African Union peacekeeping force has established contact with the abductors. “We are here to protect civilians," the head of the mission told them. "We are not part of...
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It's more dangerous to distribute aid than fight as a UN peacekeeper

(Newser) -
A shocking number of fatal attacks on international aid workers made 2008 the most dangerous year yet to perform such work, Reuters reports. Last year, 260 workers were attacked on the job, 122 fatally; the majority were working in Somalia, Darfur, or Afghanistan. The Center on International Cooperation’s study...
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Peacekeepers overwhelmed as rebels advance against government troops

(Newser) -
The overwhelmed United Nations peacekeeping force in eastern Congo is urgently calling for reinforcements, the AP reports. A surge in fighting between Congolese government troops and forces led by a renegade general has sent tens of thousands fleeing. The UN currently has only 6,000 troops in North Kivu, where...
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'Peacekeeping' posts appear likely to remain on Georgian soil

(Newser) -
Having withdrawn from the Georgian city of Gori, Russia said tonight it is in full compliance with a cease-fire agreement, the New York Times reports. Despite criticism from the US and France, nations that helped broker the deal, Moscow continues to occupy the breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia,...
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Farrow: Use term atop UN Security Council to cement support

(Newser) -
The US will take over as president of the UN Security Council next month, and, in the Wall Street Journal, Mia Farrow and Nancy Soderberg say that ending the Darfur genocide should be a key goal during its term. Sudan is denying entry to all non-African UN peacekeepers, the actress...
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(Newser) -
Darfur may be on a road back to the pitched fighting between rebels, militias and the Sudanese army that killed hundreds of thousands and displaced millions 5 years ago, prompting the US to call it genocide, the New York Times reports. The Sudanese government recently stepped up operations in the...
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Troops called in after mobs burn border posts

(Newser) -
NATO peacekeepers have sealed off Kosovo's northern borders after angry mobs torched border posts, the BBC reports. US troops have blocked the main road to Serbia, and French and Estonian troops have cut off the crossing to Montenegro. The move is bound to infuriate Serbs both in Kosovo and Serbia,...
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New country 'inches away from partition'

(Newser) -
Hundreds of Serbs torched government and UN buildings in Kosovo today in the worst violence since the country declared independence on Sunday, raising fears of an ethnic split, Reuters reports. Seemingly well-organized gangs rampaged near the border, driving off peacekeepers who tried to intervene. No injuries were reported. “We...
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(Newser) -
Rebels pulled out of Chad’s capital city of N’Djamena last night, temporarily ending a 2-day siege, but renewed hostilities broke out today, the AP reports. The rebels said they pulled back to allow civilians to flee, an offer hundreds took advantage of. But the interior minister insisted the...
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(Newser) -
China is increasing the number of UN peackekeepers it sends to Africa and raising its profile on the continent, creating a kind of "peace corps" to address problems from job shortages to health care, the Christian Science Monitor reports. China, itself a developing nation, appears determined to both do...
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Suicide attack piques terrorism worries; Fatah al-Islam suspected

(Newser) -
A car bomb killed six members of a Spanish UN peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon yesterday, in the first attack in a year on peacekeepers there. No one claimed responsibility for the bombing near Khiyam, but observers suspect Fatah al-Islam, the same al-Qaeda-spawned Sunni group that battled Lebanon at the...
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